I like a lot things about this game. However, i have noticed a tendency towards hoarding quests(i do this myself) and then completing most of them in later stages of the game. While i also like this aspect of there being some urgency and competition in getting the right/good quests (generally speaking those high-scoring/matching lord card/matching plentifull resource quests).

IMO this is not very thematic (having a ton of quests to undertake that just gets older) and would like to see some kind of urgency of the quests that you have been chosen (the exception is of course those quests that grant an ongoing bonus). Maybe it could be based somehow on being ahead on VP track to grant some kind of bonus ? (turn order after first player have moved?) or based on relative number or sheer number of quests ? or based on how long a quest have been open ? maybe involving some tweak to MQs ?

Hmmm... you could add a "quest check phase" to the beginning of the round. Rotate any active quests (90 or 180 degrees, depending on how urgent you want your quests). Any "upside down" quests are discarded instead of rotated, and you lose points equal to half the quest's VP (because you'd still need something to deter people from hording quests).

Another option is to simply limit the number of active quests.

Or, add 1 or 2 VP tokens to each active quest each round. Quests are then worth their printed value MINUS the number of VP tokens on them.

But, the issue I see with any sort of quest urgency is that you've really only created a lower scoring game because players will only take quests they know that they can complete in the alotted time (or can complete immediately). No one is going to start gathering adventurers for a 20VP quest that might be gone by the time they get around to taking it from Cliffwatch Inn. Also, this would make the "clean sweep" spot at Cliffwatch Inn much more popular, which I'm not sure is a good thing.

I don't like to keep quests or adventurers sitting around if I can help it. The attacks that remove adventurers and mandatory quests that could prevent quests from being completed seem like the natural balance to hoarding.

This is more of an issue in a 2p game (where you'll complete 10+ quests) vs a 5p game. In the 2p game it makes more sense to hoard quests and get plot quests done first to gain those benefits. Mandatory quests/stealing one cube have little effect until the last round or two in a 2p.

I think an intrigue card that would allow stealing an uncompleted quest would be interesting (perhaps you could repurpose the mandatory quest or some other intrigue cards). Or one that caused people to toss half their unfinished quests if they had more than 4.

You could also institute a penalty for uncompleted quests at game end (or per round as others suggested).